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| Hominidae | |
|---|---|
| |
| The eight living Hominidae species | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Suborder: | Haplorhini |
| Infraorder: | Simiiformes |
| Superfamily: | Hominoidea |
| Family: | Hominidae |
The hominids are members of the biological family Hominidae (the great apes). This family includes humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans.[2] "Great ape" is a common name rather than a taxonomic label, and people use it in different ways. Sometimes people mean to include humans in the category of “great apes,” and sometimes they mean non-human apes. Homo sapiens is definitely a hominid, as judged by all modern reference works.
Hominids range in weight from 48 kg to 270 kg. Males are larger than females. Hominids are primates with no tails, strong bodies, and well-developed forearms. Their thumbs (and big toes, except in humans) oppose the fingers, and form a grip. All digits have flattened nails.
At present, the family Hominidae includes four genera and eight species. However, if fossil hominids were included, all of the Australopithecines and the genus Homo would be members of the Hominidae family. Today, nonhuman great apes live only in the rainforests of equatorial Africa, Sumatra and Borneo.
The first hominid fossils are from the Miocene period. Archaeologists found these in Asia[3] and Europe. Also in Asia, they found fossils of a huge version of the orangutan called Gigantopithecus, which is now extinct. Fossils also show that Neanderthals were in Europe and western Asia for at least half a million years before modern humans appeared.
Scholars do not agree on exactly how to classify the family Hominidae.
In the past, the family Hominidae have been classified this way:
A more recent classification shows humans and the Australopithecines as distinct from the rainforest apes. Two major reference works have supported this approach.[4][5]
Superfamily Hominoidea
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